07. The Outflow of the Spirit
THE OUTFLOW OF THE SPIRIT One of the greatest blessings the Lord gave me in the Great War was the joy of influencing others for I Christ, even in the midst of all the circumstances of active service in the army. The blessing of he baptism of the Spirit not only transformed and enriched my in inner spiritual life, but it imparted a greater joy and power in my personal witness for the Lord. This is in accordance with our Lord’s own words concerning e baptism of the Spirit, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, etc.” I relate a few instances of the encouragements the Lord gave me while I was still in France and after I had trusted Him for entire sanctification. 1. A SEAL TO SANCTIFYING FAITH After trusting the Lord to sanctify me wholly, I was, on the same day, tested on a point of obedience to the voice of the Spirit. One of the first things I felt the Lord would have me do was to confess Him more openly in the convalescent hut in which I was staying, by openly kneeling down by my bedside in prayer before I retired to sleep. I obeyed the voice of the Spirit the very first night, and the Lord honored me for doing so. Through this quiet testimony, I was brought into conversation with a young soldier whose bed was quite close to mine. I prayed earnestly for his salvation and, although I spoke to him several times, it was without any visible result. Then one day I felt liberty in praying definitely that he Lord should bring him to a decision that very afternoon. I met him and we went into a quiet room together and had a talk. Praise the Lord, it was not long before he was on his knees with me in prayer and he accepted the Lord as his Savior! Afterwards he confessed to his comrades the step of faith he had taken. I was much encouraged by this answer of the Lord to definite prayer for this one soul. I regarded this soul as a further seal of the Lord to my faith for entire sanctification because it was through obeying the voice of the Spirit immediately after I had exercised sanctifying faith that I was brought into touch with this soul and was enabled to lead him to Christ.
After my spiritual crisis on October 23, 1916, I remained at the base camp for over two months and had the joy of dealing with souls individually, particularly in the meetings at the Salvation Army hut. Recently I came across a letter I wrote to my father about this time. There is a brief postscript. It says, “Glory! I have just led another dear fellow to the Lord!” 2. THE LION CHANGED INTO A LAMB On one occasion I was sleeping in a marquee with soldiers belonging to various regiments. One night, just, after “lights out,” one of the soldiers, whom I found out afterwards was a big, burly corporal in one of the Guards regiments, commenced to blaspheme aloud. I made a protest. “Who the ——— do you reckon you are? I’ll pitch you outside,” he roared. However, I said no more and he did not attempt to carry out his threat but quieted down. I prayed for his corporal, and soon afterwards the way opened for me to have a quiet talk alone with him. Instead of turning to “pitch me outside,” he was as calm as a lamb, apologized, and listened very respectfully while I talked to him about the Lord and salvation. Although I did not see him make an actual decision, yet I felt that he was much impressed and that the Lord was working in him. I learned, too, in this marquee how powerfully our lives may be speaking to others when we are quite unconscious of it. I had never spoken to the sergeant in charge of the marquee, but the day I left he came up to me and thanked me for the witness I had borne during my short stay there. 3. A MIDNIGHT CONVERSATION IN A WASHHOUSE Once I was a corporal in charge of a guard at a reinforcement camp. I had a talk with one of the young men in my charge and found him a very responsive listener to the truth of the gospel He told me he was quite willing to accept Christ as his Savior. He came off duty about midnight, and when I had posted the reliefs we went together into a washhouse near by and shut the door. It was a lovely night and the full moon was shining through into the washhouse. We knelt down together and prayed, and he there and then definitely accepted Christ. I heard from him afterwards when he was up in the trenches telling me how he thanked God that he had taken that step of faith in Christ that night, the washhouse. 4. A CANADIAN AWAKENED AND RESTORED It was my practice, when I had opportunity, to distribute gospel tracts and New Testaments. Once my battalion was stationed near a village behind the lines at which a Canadian regiment was billeted. One Sunday evening, I went out to this village and entered various estaminets and distributed gospel tracts to the Canadians as they were drinking, smoking, card-playing, etc. I went to one table and handed a booklet to a Canadian corporal. He accepted it and then he looked up to me and said, “Well, corporal, do you think it wrong to smoke?” I did not enter into an argument on that point, I but made some remark to the effect that the main object I had was first of all to win souls for Christ. He then rose from his seat and said, “Will you come outside with me?” We both walked out into the road. He seemed to be greatly moved. He told me that he had been interested in a little chapel when he was at home, but that since he had joined the army he had grown careless about spiritual things. “Do you know,” he said, “when you walked into that estamiruet and handed me that booklet I was just about to play my first game of cards. When you spoke to me I remembered it was Sunday night, and all of a sudden it made me think of home and the little chapel I used to attend on Sunday evenings. Can we get somewhere and have prayer?” It was a dark, damp night and we could not find a suitable place where we could be alone. He was so keen to have prayer with me, however, that at last he said, “Let’s get through this hedge and into the field.” We got into the field and then he flung off his thick overcoat and laid it on the damp grass. “There, we can kneel on that,” he ex claimed. So we both knelt together on the overcoat.
How earnestly he prayed! He poured out his heart to God, confessing his backsliding, asked for forgiveness, and prayed for strength to live the Christian life in the army. I was simply melted and filled with joy as I knelt beside him on the overcoat in the middle of the field. How real was the presence of God! I was the only human being that heard this prayer; but as I looked up with a full heart to the cloudy sky, I knew that the Lord was looking on and that all the angels in heaven must have been rejoicing at the sight of this soul coming back to the Lord. When we had both finished praying, he suddenly rose up, put his hand in his pocket, and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. He dropped them on to the ground and stamped them into the earth with his feet. “There, I’ve done with them,” he exclaimed. I had never said a word to him in condemnation of smoking; but there, alone in that field, the presence of the Lord was so real that, without any suggestion whatever on my part, he got rid of the cigarettes. I have often wondered since whether the Lord could have used me to help this soul if I had been a smoker myself. I very much doubt it. I was able to meet the Canadian once or twice afterwards before we finally parted, and we used to get down in a ditch by the roadside and have prayer together. 5. THE POWER OF WITNESS TO A RISEN CHRIST On another Sunday evening, while distributing gospel booklets in the estaminets, I entered into conversation with a soldier whose trouble seemed to be doubts. “Why does God allow this war?” and “Why are there so many religions?” were the kind of questions he asked. “I hardly know what to believe.” I told him that I, too, had passed through the stage of darkness, that there were still many problems which I could not answer, but I was now absolutely certain of one great fact, which satisfied my heart, and that was Christ. “I am perfectly I sure of Christ, and that satisfies me,” I said. “How are you sure of Christ?” he asked. “Because I know Him,” I replied. “How do you know Him?” he further asked. “Well, my dear fellow,” I exclaimed, “I spent a blessed half hour in His company early this morning. Know Him! I should think I do! The very Christ you read of in the Bible is the One I am absolutely certain has risen from the dead and is alive at the right hand of God. I am certain of it because I know the great change and joy which have come into my life through believing in Him. Oh, yes, praise God, I am certain of the person of Christ.” That testimony went home. He said little more and I could see that he was impressed. What a joy it was to me to be able to testify to a definite, personal knowledge of a risen, ascended Lord Jesus! One of the results of the baptism of the Spirit was that “with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” Praise the Lord, when that same blessed Spirit of Pentecost fills our hearts today, He will impart spiritual power to enable us to give the same God-honoring witness to a living, risen, victorious Christ at the right hand of God and also an indwelling Christ abiding within the heart! 6. WITNESSING IN A DUGOUT, ETC. At various times while I was our active service in France, I had the joy of praying with individual soldiers in huts (both British army and Salvation Army kinds), in an open field in the dark, in a washhouse at midnight, behind a haystack, in a ditch by the roadside, and once in a dugout in the front-line trenches with a young comrade who was concerned about is soul. But I do not for one moment claim that all to whom I spoke to about Christ were equally impressed. At times, of course, I got a certain amount of good-natured “chaffing.” As an instance of one who, outwardly at any rate, did not appear to be impressed with my testimony, I relate the following incident. A party of us were in reserve in a big dugout. One evening after finishing a “fatigue,” we gathered round a brazier fire. There was nothing much to do just then, and one of the men started questioning me about religion. “Well, Brockett, I can’t understand why you make so much about the Bible,” he said. “I believe in just following my conscience.
Look here now, will you just read us out something from the Bible which appeals to you and which you think is very good?” “Oh, certainly,” I replied. that very day I had been greatly blessed by reading John 17, and so I pulled out my little pocket Bible and read the whole of John 17 to the men gathered round the brazier fire. “I think that is simply glorious,” I exclaimed when I had finished. “What a wonderful person that Christ must be who could speak such words as that!” “H’m, I don’t understand it. I don’t see much in it all myself,” said the one who had asked me to read out of the Bible. What an illustration of the truth: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” On another occasion I was in an old barn with a group, and an opportunity occurred for me to testify of the Lord. Then one of them exclaimed, “Why, look at this chap! He’s actually got faith.” The way he said it rather amused me. He sounded as if he had just discovered in myself a new and queer specimen of humanity. And yet I can understand his feeling like that. Paul said, “All men have not faith.” If, therefore, we really have true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to value above everything else this priceless possession, the gift of God, even though others without this precious faith may not understand us at all. Let us rejoice exceedingly if we are among those who “have obtained like precious faith …. through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1). 7. MY SANCTIFICATION ANNIVERSARY BLESSING AN AUSTRALIAN BLEST In October, 1917, owing to illness, I was sent to. base camp near Boulogne, where some Australians were stationed. October 23,1917, the first anniversary of the day on which I had trusted the Lord for entire sanctification, drew near. The Lord had already given me one seal to my faith for sanctification by enabling me to win a soul to Him shortly afterwards. I wonder if the Lord will let me have another seal on the first anniversary of my sanctification day, I thought. Gradually the Holy Spirit gave me liberty to ask the Father that I might lead another Christian into the blessing of entire sanctification on the first anniversary of the day on which I entered in myself. So I prayed and waited on the Lord. A few days before October 23,1917, the first anniversary day, I came into contact with a bright young Australian in a Salvation Army hut. I had happy fellowship with him, and to my delight I found that he was most responsive to the truth of entire sanctification. He felt his need and on October 23, 1917, on my anniversary day, and almost at the very same hour of the day, also in a quiet room in another Salvation Army hut, I knelt with this dear Australian Christian and he took the same step of faith that I had taken myself exactly a year previously. When I saw him the next day he was beaming with joy. “Yes, my heart feels pure now.
Something has been taken away from it,” he testified. Needless to say I was filled again with joy at this further seal that the Lord gave me to my faith for entire sanctification A few days afterwards I left this particular camp and so did not see my Australian friend again. It seemed as if the Lord had purposely guided my steps to this spot in order that I might get in touch with this Australian Christian in time to lead him into the blessing exactly on my sanctification anniversary day. After the war I came back to England and he returned to Australia, but the link of fellowship has been maintained by correspondence for nearly thirty years He has six sons, and in a recent letter I have received from him, it is clear that he is still going on in the way of faith, rejoicing in the Lord.